Upon graduation from University Without Walls (UWW), Robin said, "During first semester you told us that if we allowed it to, this experience [writing a prior learning portfolio] would change us. I was so angry with you for saying that because I liked who I was and didn't want to change. But you were right. And I'm glad." For the past 39 years the centerpiece of UWW, the adult education program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, has been a prior experiential learning process. This process involves students' writing and critically reflecting on past professional and, in some instances, personal experiences and awards them academic credit for this learning. The outcomes can be transformative for the learner, facilitating the development of a new sense of confidence and ability to make new meanings of experience. This, in turn, spurs the learner to make changes inside as well as outside the self. Keywordstransformative learning, prior learning assessment, learning from experience Research PurposeThe purpose of this study is to determine the degree to which the University Without Walls (UWW) at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (UMass Amherst) approach to prior learning assessment (PLA) contributes to transformative learning for adult students. UWW has been awarding students academic credit for learning from experience since 1971. The process by which this is accomplished involves the students' writing a prior learning portfolio (PLP), a thesis-sized document in which students describe and analyze their prior experiential learning. This portfolio is then assessed by faculty to determine a credit award. Students are encouraged to demonstrate their knowledge and capacity for critical thinking by writing essays concerning

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